The Investigators, Inc. The Case of Jacie’s Murder. Chapter 13. Getting Close.

I had asked Kitty and Astrid to pick up Angel and told Kitty to send Misty and Tracy up to my room. They soon knocked on my door and Sky let them in. “You do things strangely Steve,” said Ivy, “when I have one of my men open the door to let someone in, they have their gun out and ready to use, just in case the person we are expecting isn’t that person, or maybe they want to kill me. But you have your guard answer the door, unarmed, that doesn’t seem very wise to me.”

“Well, Crystal, actually her real name is Sky, would be able to stop anyone that came to that door,” I said, “she is quite an amazing fighter and would be able to stop anyone who came to that door.” “Even if there are 4 men with guns?” she asked. “Yes, even 4 men with guns,” I said, “there are several women on our team that I call our Ghost Team because they can do things that most people wouldn’t believe until they see them in action.” “Uh huh, I still think you’re taking chances,” she said. “You sound like my wife,” I said. “She sounds like a sensible woman,” said Ivy smiling. I sighed.

“Now, Misty,” I said, “you were in charge of waiting for Mr. B to show up and you neglected to tell me about Ivy. Did you even see her?” “Yep, we saw her, but you told us to wait for Mr. B and tell you when he arrived,” she said, “you didn’t say anything about Ivy.” “All 4 of you girls will be getting 5 demerits,” I said, “you should have told me. She might have been coming here to kill me.” “Well, I guess, sorta, maybe,” she said, “but you did have Sky with you for protection and no one can get past her.” I just looked at her.

“Well, it’s not fair to give the other girls demerits,” she said, “I was in charge, I should get demerits.” “That’s a good point,” I said, “so I will give you 5 demerits and give 5 demerits to each of the other girls.” “That’s better,” she said, “no, wait, that’s the same thing, you’re trying to outsneak me, that’s not nice.” I laughed, loud and long. “Are you finished?” she asked finally. “Yep, that was a good one,” I said. Then Celestine came over and sat on my lap.

“Now, my King,” she said, “don’t you think an apology is a good idea?” “Maybe you’re right, my Queen,” I said, “Misty, you need to apologize.” “Hey, not Misty, I meant you!” exclaimed Celestine. “Oh, right,” I said, “I apologize for, uh (Celestine whispered), oh yeah, for laughing at you.” “Accepted,” said Misty smiling. “You have a good time with your team members I see,” said Ivy, “would that include me too if I’m allowed to join?” “Yep, you all have to put up with me,” I said. “And that’s not so hard,” said Sky as she sat on my lap now. We talked more, then had dinner in the restaurant and Ivy stayed with us at the hotel that night.

Meanwhile, “Obviously Ivy sold out to that small time PI,” said Kenwood, “I want her killed the first chance you boys get, and make sure everyone understands that Mitch.” “Sure thing Boss,” he said and off he went. “She knows a lot about our operations,” said Andrew Li, “that could be bad if she told that to the police.” “Yes, that’s why we need to kill her quickly,” said Kenwood. “Or just pick her up and give her to me,” said Li, “she won’t talk to the police after that.”

“I would rather just kill her and get it done,” said Kenwood, “and I would like to get those Investigators out of here quickly too, but they won’t leave until they find out who killed Jacie.” “Hmm, that is a tough one,” said Li, “neither of us did it, Ivy didn’t do it, that leaves Mr. B and Big Daddy.” “Who’s Big Daddy?” asked Kenwood. “I do not know,” said Li, “but Jacie told me she was scared of him and he lives here in Calgary.” “Well, that doesn’t help much,” said Kenwood.

Meanwhile, back to us. Good thing that we ate earlier this evening or we would have bumped into Kenwood and Li and I didn’t want to do that with Ivy being in our group this time. I guess we could have used room service, but it’s nice to get out. The next morning I called Peter to see if we could come over again and he said it would be okay. I didn’t want them to know that we already knew of Jacie’s diary, so I just casually asked them if she kept a diary and they said she did.

I then asked if we could read it, she may have important information in there that could help us find her murderer. “No,” said Laurie, “that is her private thoughts, no one is allowed to read that!” “But if it helps to find out who killed our little girl,” said Peter, “then I think we should let them read it.” “I said NO!” exclaimed Laurie, “You are just trying to find some way to blame Jacie for killing herself! Besides, we all know it was Dan who killed her!” “No, Dan did not kill her,” I said, “we uncovered positive proof that he did not kill her. Unfortunately someone killed Dan now.”

Laurie had a shocked look on her face now when I mentioned we had positive proof that Dan was innocent. “Well, I still think he killed her,” said Laurie adamantly, “he just has ways to make himself look innocent! And I won’t let you look at Jacie’s diary. I am going to burn it today!” “Please don’t do that,” said Kitty, “we are just trying to find the killer of Jacie and get him in prison where he belongs. We are asking you to help us do that.” “Please Laurie,” said Peter, “let them read it, we need to find the killer so we can get some closure in this terrible thing that has happened to us.”

She then stomped off and came back with the last of the diaries, though she said it was the only one. This is the one that would most likely help us anyway. We thanked them both and left again before we disturbed Laurie any more. Jacie did mention being scared of Andrew Li in there and Big Daddy. However, she wrote about Big Daddy in the feminine form, which I thought was interesting.

Celestine said she was scared of a woman that was close to her but wasn’t able to write that, so she chose the opposite, a male figure. Probably due to a growing hatred of men in general because of the sex work she was in. That fit with my original thought of who killed her, but I just didn’t have anything to go on except an idea, and I needed more than that.

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.